Construction of 450mm Fab 'Well Underway'

The construction of Intel's first wafer fab for processing 450mm diameter wafers is "well underway," having started in January 2013, an Intel spokesperson tells EE Times.

The fab -- known as D1X module 2 -- is intended to be a development fab for production of ICs on 450mm diameter wafers. However, the breaking of ground for the wafer fab was not widely reported at the time it occurred.

Intel did announce in October 2012 that it was seeking permission to expand D1X with a second module, to accommodate "new manufacturing technology," but it only distributed the press release to local Oregon press and did not post the news on its website.